SHE CAN HANDLE HANDEL
and MUCH, MUCH MORE!!!
Some of the best things come in small packages. Yes, even sopranos!
And petite Rosemary Joshua proves it in more ways than one, as she has
often done. As when she sang the role of the Princess Ginevra early
in 2002 in the San Diego Opera production of Handel's Ariodante,
where we last caught up with her, and when she played a disarming Juliette,
also at San Diego Opera a couple of years ago. Indeed, the young Welsh
singer, certainly one of Britain's finest "baroque" sopranos,
enjoys a growing international reputation and is today considered one
of the brightest stars of her generation.
Having sung a number of Handel's heroines to great acclaim, she is,
not surprisingly, best known as a Handel specialist, a singer who, as
one critic put, it has "the perfect voice for Handel's soprano
roles - a brilliantly focused, silvered timbre with crystalline high
notes and effortless coloratura" - qualities which were in abundant
display at her performance as Ginevra in San Diego's Ariodante. Her
first Handelian hit - as Angelica in Orlando at the Aix-en-Provence
Festival - soon led the way to Semele at the Aix-en Provence
and Inssbruck Festivals, Flansers, Cologne and English National
Opera (ENO) Poppea in Agrippina in Cologne, Brussels and Paris,
and Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare in Florida. Thus, as
she herself would likely put it, she became a Handel specialist more
by accident than by design.
Yes,
her voice is perfect for singing Handel, but it is perfect for other
roles as well. And the range of her continually expanding repertoire
proves it - Mozart (Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro - ENO,, Glyndebourne
and Paris, Zerlina in Don Giovanni - Scottish Opera), Gounod
(Juliette in Romeo et Juliette - San Diego Opera) Janacek (The
Cunning Little Vixen - Flanders and Paris), Richard Strauss (Sophie
in Der Rosenkavalier - ENO), Johann Strauss (Adele in Die
Fledermaus - her Metropolitan Opera debut), Stravinsky (Anne Truelove
in The Rake's Progress - Glyndebourne).
Ms. Joshua is building a reputation as a concert artist as well, singing
with the Europe's eminent conductors and orchestras. Recent concert
appearances include the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Sir
Charles Mackerras, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Roger Norrington and René
Jacobs; Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Mackerras; London Philharmonic
Orchestra with Mark Elder; Concentus Musicus Wien with Nikolaus Harnoncourt;
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen with Daniel Harding; Netherlands
Philharmonic at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, both the City of Birmingham
Symphony and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestras with Emmanuelle Haïm
and her debut with the New York Philharmonic under Nicholas McGegan.
Already, she has several recordings to her name, including complete
operas such as: Handel’s 'Semele' and ‘Partenope’
with Christian Curnyn (Chandos); Handel's 'Esther' (Somm); Angelica
with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie (Erato); ‘Saul’,
'Venus and Adonis’ and ‘Dido and Aeneas’ all with
René Jacobs (Harmonia Mundi); Sophie in 'Der Rosenkavalier' (Chandos)
and the Sandman in 'Hansel und Gretel' (Teldec).
Not to be dismissed are her other personal assets - she's warm, friendly
and very down-to-earth, a winsome soprano gifted with an innate understanding
of her craft and a natural acting ability, a figure to listen to AND
behold on stage because she not only sings the part but also always
looks the part. Her devotion to her calling is matched by a devotion
to her growing family - her husband, French baritone Oliver Lalouette
(shown with her in photo above), and their two children - who are always
with her wherever opera beckons on both sides of the Atlantic. Could
anyone ask more of a young soprano?
In an interview with
FanFaire, Rosy, as her friends call her, talks about herself and her
blossoming career.
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